About Citizen Maths

Citizen Maths is a free, open, online resource for people who want to improve their grasp of maths at level two (GCSE-level in England, Wales and Northern Ireland), or, in Scotland, at SCQF level five (Standard Grade).

Learners can use Citizen Maths on any device, any time and anywhere they choose. They can use it as a standalone resource to study independently, or to practice what they have learned in face-to-face sessions with their teacher or trainer.

Each module takes between five and ten hours to complete. It consists of short, engaging video lessons and uses demonstrations and apps that enable learners to try ideas out in practice. It teaches core skills such as how to read graphs, analyse data and use spreadsheets and helps to improve digital literacy.

Users can study at their own pace and fit Citizen Maths around their other commitments. They can cover ground again and again until they’re confident and revisit the resources whenever they want to.

“It was like having a tutor in my home, working at my pace, at my level"

Citizen Maths user

Each module offers quizzes and assessments so that users can test themselves. Learners who are using Citizen Maths to support workplace or college learning can choose whether they share their assessment results with their teacher or trainer, or not. The user is always in control of his or her own learning.

Originally developed by Calderdale College with support from charitable trust Ufi, Citizen Maths doesn’t offer a qualification. However, learners who complete a module successfully can be confident that they have reached the level two standard for that topic. In this way it helps users who are working towards a formal level two qualification.

Why this is useful

Traditional methods of teaching maths don’t work for everyone. We can see that in the large numbers of 16-19 year olds taking GCSE re-sits, as well as in the large numbers of older people who say that they “never really got maths”.

Sometimes this is because it’s hard for learners to see why maths is useful. But today’s employers need their employees to have core maths skills, which is why we have added Citizen Maths to our collection of learning resources for FE and skills.

What you'll learn

Citizen Maths uses an alternative approach to traditional maths teaching. It takes some key mathematical concepts and sets them in real life contexts. This helps learners understand why maths is useful and to discover principles and techniques that could help them in day-to-day tasks such as:

Budgeting

Understanding a payslip

Tracking savings

Controlling a production process

Making political judgments

Who should use Citizen Maths?

It's for anyone who is taking GCSE or Standard Grade re-sits, apprentices and learners on other courses, workers who need to update or brush up their maths skills, and anyone who would like to finally understand maths concepts that have always eluded them.